diminution

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

n. The act or process of diminishing; a lessening or reduction.

n. The resulting reduction; decrease.

n. Music Statement of a theme in notes of lesser duration, usually one-half, of the original.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

n. A lessening, decrease or reduction.

n. The shortening of the notes of a melody or theme.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English

n. The act of diminishing, or of making or becoming less; state of being diminished; reduction in size, quantity, or degree; -- opposed to augmentation or increase.

n. The act of lessening dignity or consideration, or the state of being deprived of dignity; a lowering in estimation; degradation; abasement.

n. Omission, inaccuracy, or defect in a record.

n. In counterpoint, the imitation of, or reply to, a subject, in notes of half the length or value of those the subject itself.

from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

n. The act of diminishing, lessening, or reducing; a making smaller; a lowering in amount, value, dignity, estimation, etc.: as, the diminution of wealth, of importance, of power.

n. The process of becoming less: as, the apparent diminution of a receding body; the diminution of the velocity of a projectile.

n. In music, the repetition or imitation of a subject or theme in notes having one half or one quarter the duration of those first used: a favorite device in contrapuntal composition. See canon, counterpoint, and imitation.

n. In law, an omission in the record of a case sent up from an inferior court to the court of review.

n. In heraldry, differencing, especially that kind of differencing called cadency.

n. In architecture, the gradual decrease in the diameter of the shaft of a column from the base to the capital.

After the summer solstice, although the days are shortening in consequence of the sun's recession, their diminution is for some time scarcely perceptible, and as the days are still much longer than the nights, more heat is imparted to the earth than is lost by night-radiation.

Someone will no-doubt pop up and say that evolution will ensure that new, adapted species will pop up, but the current evidence suggests that the change will be faster than evolution will be able to comfortably adapt for leading to a long term diminution in biological richness.

"Given the uncertainties in both models and the significant differences concerning the causes (dust and soot, versus sulphates) and length (three months to several years), the analogy between 'nuclear winter' and 'volcanic winter' was unsubstantiated, having only a vague commonality in a short-term diminution of global temperatures.